US Elections 2012 Part II: The Conventions, Debates and Election results

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Quite the opposite, because it is an hypothesis it needs further testing.

Yes, but a hypothesis, especially one that is in as early of a developmental stage as this one, is about as far from a "confirmation" as you can get. It's literally in the "I think this could be interesting if true, maybe I'll do some tests on it one day" stage.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ogon_bat

I am surprised (for a lack of a better word) that Professor Steve Jones said "... I have no idea how the idea could be tested.”, I mean, really? Nowadays we can sequence DNA and we have the well preserved cadaver of Otzi the iceman, who is about 5000 years old (albeit he looks like he died a year ago) so it is quite feasible to sequence that DNA and compare it with that of modern man. If am no geneticist but I came with this idea in seconds.

Sequencing DNA means little if you don't know what it does, and therein lies the problem - while we have sequenced the human genome (you can get yours done for around $10k these days), we still don't have a clue as to what many of them do, much less how they all interact together. This is especially so when you try to nail down something as esoteric as intellectual capability in the DNA.

In other words, we're probably about as close to be able to pin down the DNAs responsible for human intelligence as we are to making a functional matter/anti-matter reactor.

Beyond the marijuana law in Colorado, Americans didn’t take much notice after Election Day of new regulations affecting districts other than their own. Except for one. In Los Angeles, actors in adult movies will now be required to wear condoms.

“It’s not about safety,” porn star James Deen told AnimalNewYork.com. “This is about freedom of expression. This is interrupting the people’s choices of what they want to view.”

That’s the essence of the adult entertainment industry’s beef with Measure B, the new mandatory condom law covering flicks shot in L.A. County. Actors, directors, producers and distributors in the $7 billion industry maintain that consumers simply will not want to buy movies in which their actors wear condoms.

“The last time we attempted to go all condom, our industry lost sales by over 30 percent,” said Deen, who has starred in thousands of hardcore scenes and been outspoken on the issue (did you think he was shy?). “That’s a huge hit to our economy.”

Measure B, also known as The Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act, was ostensibly passed to help prevent the spread of HIV among actors, and was championed by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF). A scandal in which one actor falsified HIV-test results, resulting in HIV exposure to several women who worked with him, fueled the fire.

But opponents in the industry say they already practice the strictest safety standards around to protect their people against sexually transmitted diseases. The industry requires actors to be tested every 28 days, and many seek more frequent tests of their own accord.

Actor/director Kimberly Kane, who says she herself was subject to a fourth-generation HIV exposure from actor Darren James, voiced her opposition to Measure B in an editorial for Vice.com.

Says Kane, “Testing has kept us safe and while some performers might not mind the idea of condoms in some circumstances, no one would feel safer with condoms instead of testing! There has been a lot of speculation within the industry as to what the AHF's motivations are. Headlines? Fundraising? Grant money?”

Here’s a little insight, KK. Not long after L.A. County, the unofficial Porn Capital of the world, passed their regulation, the nearby town of Simi Valley demanded the same of adult entertainers. When the ordinance was first proposed, Simi Valley Mayor Bob Huber said it was motivated primarily by health and safety issue.

When comparing, it makes more sense to present data for both sides, won't you agree?

Here is a better collection of data (without too much opinion) that can give you a complete picture of what's taking place. You might need a pen and a piece of paper two jot down the numbers for those two states cause the data analyzes all 50 states. California is doing pretty well and would actually fare much better than Texas if it becomes its own country. Texas' honeymoon may last five years at most before people starts their mass exodus????

Also, a copy/paste from your previous article posted about seceding... I underlined the important part

States whose active petitions have not yet reached the 25,000 signature threshold include

Kudara nai na!Sig by TheEroKing.Calling on all Naruto fans, One Piece fans, and Shounen-fans in general... I got two words for you: One-Punch Man!Executive member of the ASS. Ready to flee at the first sign of trouble.

When comparing, it makes more sense to present data for both sides, won't you agree?

Here is a better collection of data (without too much opinion) that can give you a complete picture of what's taking place. You might need a pen and a piece of paper two jot down the numbers for those two states cause the data analyzes all 50 states. California is doing pretty well and would actually fare much better than Texas if it becomes its own country. Texas' honeymoon may last five years at most before people starts their mass exodus????

Also, a copy/paste from your previous article posted about seceding... I underlined the important part

States whose active petitions have not yet reached the 25,000 signature threshold include

I read the PDF file quickly, but upon cursory examination it shows that Texas takes in less federal aid (in 2010) than does California.
Perhaps I need to read it in more detail, but considering Texas has no state income tax because it doesn't need it, and California's taxes are astronomical in comparison, it is clear that the California model doesn't work if it also requires more federal aid than Texas.

If Texas were to actually secede (which I highly doubt) they wouldn't be anywhere near in the dire condition that California would be in if it were able to secede.

Honestly, I don't see anything in the FAS report that would support the idea that Texas takes more aid, or is somehow inferior to California economically.
In fact, the quick skim I did of it seems to indicate the opposite, but then again maybe I'll go back and give it a better look if I have time today.

Counting on it. Now that job creators have fired a lot of people, they can certainly afford the tax increase. If they can spend few hundred millions on Super Pacs (probably the real reason why they need to fire so many of these people), they can afford to pay the fare rate 98% of the tax payers are already paying.

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Kudara nai na!Sig by TheEroKing.Calling on all Naruto fans, One Piece fans, and Shounen-fans in general... I got two words for you: One-Punch Man!Executive member of the ASS. Ready to flee at the first sign of trouble.

Nonsense. California and Texas are not independent economies. Neither would be the size they are without the rest of the Union. There's no way to predict what kind of economy they would have if they went independent.

And the secession talk is equally nonsense. If people aren't happy with the results of a free and democratic election, they are welcome to head to one of the many countries were citizens are killed for having any opinion that isn't beaten into them....usually literally. Mandate? Yeah, when you barely keep your majority in the House, become even more of a minority in the Senate, and the President wins by a comfortable margin among all voters except old white people....yeah, it's a mandate.

I'm not saying these people shouldn't be taken seriously (somewhat), but it's incredibly sad to see how deep the poison has run among the conservative movement and politics in general. Quite frankly, I'm just as tired of hearing conservatives freak out about every communist or terrorist around the corner as I am about liberals overusing the terms "middle class" and "small business". If this was a drinking game, I'd need an artificial liver just to keep up.

Just look at that picture posted above. It's a cycle of irrational hatred that does nothing but undermine everything better people bled and died for.

What we really need right now, politically, is a huge push for fresh ideas. If the best we got is yet another clash over Friedman, Smith, Marx, and Rand....we're doomed. There's too much stagnation.

One thing that would have been nice to change would be Nancy Pelosi. Couldn't they have swapped her out for someone else?

California has a lot of international business, plus Hollywood. Plus a lot of agriculture. If it broke away, there would need to be a few trade treaties done for the rest of the country or the new other countries, but all in all the State would last on its own. Though the Democratic government here might actually be forced to cancel a huge number of their random programs in order to keep the State's infrustructure intact without Federal funding.

Plus they can up there own income tax since the citizens won't be paying Federal income taxes anymore. We already have nearly 10% sales tax in some counties.

Counting on it. Now that job creators have fired a lot of people, they can certainly afford the tax increase. If they can spend few hundred millions on Super Pacs (probably the real reason why they need to fire so many of these people), they can afford to pay the fare rate 98% of the tax payers are already paying.

What we really need right now, politically, is a huge push for fresh ideas. If the best we got is yet another clash over Friedman, Smith, Marx, and Rand....we're doomed. There's too much stagnation.

THIS, more than anything I've read in recent months, is pure wisdom, Solace.
Kudos.
We need to transcend (not in the religious way) the current paradigm of political thought and move on to something entirely new.

THIS, more than anything I've read in recent months, is pure wisdom, Solace.
Kudos.
We need to transcend (not in the religious way) the current paradigm of political thought and move on to something entirely new.

Well, at least you know why I tend to be interested in things like ZM. And even that is still rooted in some very old thinking.

Ugh. I ranted a long time ago about this, but I'll just say for the record two things. One, redistricting should not be done by any group with political party affiliation. Two, term limits need to be put in place for Congress. You shouldn't be able to predict an election based on how many of the candidates have "incumbent" next to their name. ><

Additionally we need more representatives. The population has grown a lot, but we haven't changed the representative numbers in a very long time. We're overdue.

Doesn't he have a website called GloomBoomDoom.com? Regardless, your sources are much more amusing than anything else. Dude, you've been a little out of sync since the election outcome. The only point you've been striving to make so far in this thread since then (as a self-proclaimed Independent of course ) was how fucked we all are now that Obama is re-elected.

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Kudara nai na!Sig by TheEroKing.Calling on all Naruto fans, One Piece fans, and Shounen-fans in general... I got two words for you: One-Punch Man!Executive member of the ASS. Ready to flee at the first sign of trouble.

Yes, but a hypothesis, especially one that is in as early of a developmental stage as this one, is about as far from a "confirmation" as you can get. It's literally in the "I think this could be interesting if true, maybe I'll do some tests on it one day" stage.

My batsense tells me this hypothesis is on the right track

Quote:

Sequencing DNA means little if you don't know what it does, and therein lies the problem - while we have sequenced the human genome (you can get yours done for around $10k these days),

we still don't have a clue as to what many of them do, much less how they all interact together. This is especially so when you try to nail down something as esoteric as intellectual capability in the DNA.

But as the article says many genes have been identified having an effect on intelligence and as gene sequencing becomes cheaper and cheaper and computers keep getting faster it is just a matter of years (less than ten IMO) before the DNA rosetta stone is finally deciphered *starts to salivate thinking in all the biological breakthroughs, cat girls ftw >_<*

Actually, my point was that we were fucked with either Romney or Obama.

I don't buy that for a second from you. Either way, those two were the best we had and one of them is now elected. Deal with it!

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Kudara nai na!Sig by TheEroKing.Calling on all Naruto fans, One Piece fans, and Shounen-fans in general... I got two words for you: One-Punch Man!Executive member of the ASS. Ready to flee at the first sign of trouble.

as gene sequencing becomes cheaper and cheaper and computers keep getting faster it is just a matter of years (less than ten IMO) before the DNA rosetta stone is finally deciphered *starts to salivate thinking in all the biological breakthroughs, cat girls ftw >_<*

I think your hope for cat girls is making you slightly over-optimistic

We need to transcend (not in the religious way) the current paradigm of political thought and move on to something entirely new.

Except there's significant disagreement on what that "new" is!

I say we as developed western nations admit that post-war social security spending, tax cuts and other such programs have caused the baby-boomers and the echo-boom to place too much of a burden on the new upcoming generations. As such, we should all vote to default on social security and other unsecured obligations. Yay!

THIS, more than anything I've read in recent months, is pure wisdom, Solace.
Kudos.
We need to transcend (not in the religious way) the current paradigm of political thought and move on to something entirely new.

How about something old instead?

Like, "don't tell blatant lies"?

Or at least, politically punish people who simply make things up? This used to happen you know, when politicians try to hide their dishonesty because they were afraid of being caught.

Now of course, to tell lies is just another tool. The assumption is that people who won't vote for you are the only people who would notice you are lying, so why not lie to the people who would fall for it?

And the secession talk is equally nonsense. If people aren't happy with the results of a free and democratic election, they are welcome to head to one of the many countries were citizens are killed for having any opinion that isn't beaten into them....usually literally.

I don't buy into there being a real threat of secession, but do recall the last time our country had a secession problem it was indeed prompted by a presidential election (there were many factors involved, but the confederacy formed as a result of Lincoln's election).

If we follow the example from the past, we've got about 4-5 months before any actual secession takes place. .

I don't buy into there being a real threat of secession, but do recall the last time our country had a secession problem it was indeed prompted by a presidential election (there were many factors involved, but the confederacy formed as a result of Lincoln's election).

If we follow the example from the past, we've got about 4-5 months before any actual secession takes place. .